FOR IMMMEDIATE RELEASE
1/1/04
Contact: Tracy Schroth, Director of Communications
John O'Toole, director of the Oakland, CA-based National Center of Youth Law (NCYL), has been chosen by the Daily Journal as one of California's top 100 lawyers. The annual survey by the statewide legal newspaper reports on the state's most influential attorneys as selected by their peers. This year's list, chosen from more than 196,000 lawyers in the state, was announced in the Sept. 27 issue of the Daily Journal.
O'Toole, director of NCYL for the past 23 years, was the only attorney on this year's list who focuses exclusively on child advocacy. However, there were several other public interest lawyers named, including Daniel Grunfeld, president and chief executive of Public Counsel in Los Angeles; Brad Seligman, executive director of the Impact Fund; Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California; and Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The list also included such luminaries as Warren Christopher and Johnnie Cochran Jr., as well as Chief Justice Ronald George and Federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson.
Under O'Toole's leadership, NCYL has successfully reformed foster care systems in states throughout the country, most recently in Washington state, where the state has agreed to large-scale reform of its child welfare system. NCYL has a case pending in California to ensure that all foster care children in the state who need mental health care receive it. Of about 100 class action lawsuits filed by the law center in the past 23 years, it has lost only two. The Center celebrates its 35th anniversary next year.
"This type of litigation is hard to do, it's hard to get funding for," O'Toole said. "But certain things can get done only through litigation. It's extremely helpful in focusing public attention on an intractable problem. Children don't have a constituency. If it comes down to political power, kids will lose every time."
Click here for excerpts of Daily Journal story." For full text, go to www.dailyjournal.org (must have subscription).
Daily Journal's Sept. 16 story featuring NCYL
NCYL is a national, non-profit organization that uses the law to improve the lives of poor children, working to ensure they have the resources, support, and opportunities they need for a healthy and productive future. NCYL focuses its work in four areas: safety and protection of abused and neglected children; health and mental health care; financial stability for low-income families and children; and juvenile justice.
